Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email from "Mrs. Asha Renard" at "Premier Lottery International" telling you that "your email address won in the second category" or something similar, and to contact "Michael May (Payment Disbursement Contractor)" to collect your winnings? It is a scam. No legitimate, legal lottery notifies winners vian email (see footnote)! The scammers may change the names and details, but it is still a scam!
Below is the example of the fake email scam (the email is the scam, not any persons or companies named in the email) claiming to be from the "Premier Lottery International".
Although the most important clue is that no legitimate lottery will ever email a winner, there are many other signs that this is a fraud. We have highlighted some of these in the email below, not the least of which are:
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even Microsoft has a database of email addresses of the type or magnitude they suggest.
"No tickets were sold": You care to explain where the money comes from? Perhaps the lottery money fairy? Why would a lottery give away money to "email address randomly selected by a computer ballot draw system"? This is CLEARLY nonsense: you MUST, repeat MUST buy a ticket to have a chance of winning any lottery!
Terrible spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar - Scammers apparently don't know how to use spell checkers. We assume they dropped out of school before that class. They use almost excessive and random CapItaLiZAtion. Names are usually in all capital letters for some reason known only to these illiterate criminals. They often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to be "22nd". These scammers usually write at the 3rd grade level. Being non-native English speakers, they also often get first names and surnames (last names reversed), so you will frequently see names like "Mr. SMITH JAMES.", instead of "Mr. James Smith", along with the peculiar usage of periods (full stops) and spaces or the lack thereof. Real lotteries also proofread their emails and look and read more professional.
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, AIM, Gmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization would use it's own email, it's own domain and website?
Keep Confidential - Real lotteries THRIVE on publicity - they don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy more tickets. there is NO risk of "double claiming" because they can validate where the ticket numbers were sold. The scammer want you to keep quiet because they don't want the police or ConsumerFraudreporting to hear about them! It should read: "For our own security, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential until we have finished scamming you!"
Email notification: NO REAL LOTTERY SENDS AN EMAIL TO NOTIFY WINNERS. Period. Full-stop. End of story. There mere fact ALONE that you received an email saying you won a lottery is proof that it is a scam.
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
From: UK National Lottery [ onlineservices@nationallottery.net ]
Subject: Winning Notification; You Won!!!
Ref: DMSL881OYI/09
Batch: 089/05/JH369
Winning Notification.
We happily announce to you the draw of the Premier Lottery International programs held on the 28th of January, 2008. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 8937423037894 094 with Serial number 5749/83 drew the lucky numbers: 26, 15, 34, 53, 36, 47, Bonus (39) which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of $1,300,000.00 (One million three hundred thousand United States Dollars) in cash.
This year Lottery Program Jackpot is the largest ever for Premier Lottery and Promotional Lottery. The estimated $113 million jackpot would be the sixth-biggest in Premier Lottery history. The biggest was the $285 million jackpot that went to nine winners in December 2000 drawing of The Big Game Mega Millions predecessor. Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our African Regional booklet representative office in Africa as indicated in our play coupon. In view of this, your $1,300,000.00 would be released to you physically by our affiliate bank. Our agent/disbursement contractor will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds to you as soon as you make contact with him.
All participants were selected randomly from 'World Wide Web' site through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 companies.
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is a part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements. Please be warned.
To claim your prize, please contact our African Regional Disbursement agent in Africa were your claims fall within with the below details for processing of your claims.
NAME: Michael May (Payment Disbursement Contractor)
Phone: +(234)-1-765-6171 or 011-(234)-1-765-6171
Email: maymichael@web2mail.com
You are to contact the claims agent with your full names, address, telephone numbers and batch number.
Note that all claims process and clearance procedures must be duly completed early to avoid impersonation arising to the issue of double claim and ensure you forward your details of winning to the African Agent via his email because if you reply directly you may not get a response maymichael@web2mail.com To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your reference/batch numbers in any correspondences with us or our designated agent.
Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Asha Renard
(Lottery Coordinator)
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
* Re: emails of winnings. We know of only ONE exception in the world to this rule - and if you bought a ticket from them, you would know it, and would used their safegaurds.
* Re: emails of winnings. We know of only ONE exception in the world to this rule - and if you bought a ticket from them, you would know it, and would not be questioning it.